


Swordwork; or, "Let me off this pedestal!"

by Slant



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Minor existentialism, Personal Growth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-07
Updated: 2015-08-07
Packaged: 2018-04-13 08:16:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4514613
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slant/pseuds/Slant
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pearl and Peridot have a lot in common.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Swordwork; or, "Let me off this pedestal!"

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Swordplay](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4371959) by [TheJaguar (Spiderboat)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spiderboat/pseuds/TheJaguar). 



> Vast thanks to TheJaguar (Spiderboat), for the inspiration and being happy for me to play with their ideas. That said, this story is entirely my responsibility.

Something should happen at moments of revelation. Music, perhaps, something orchestral and swelling, or a sudden great silence. The world should recognise when it has been made anew.

It doesn't of course. The wind whisps around the skyarena, the clouds hang in the sky around them, and Peridot is shifting her stance under Pearl's hands like maybe if she doesn't say anything her teacher won't notice how she feels. Pearl's been there; she knows. And then her world stumbles, because now she knows what Rose saw. In a sudden rush of empathy, she tries desperately not to upset her charge. 

"I'm sorry, just a bit of _deja vu_. Do you mind if we stop?" She doesn't want Peridot to go on her way thinking that she's the cause of the sudden upset, so she adds, "It's just, I've realised something and I need to think about it and it wouldn't be fair on you for me to be distracted. We'll carry on tomorrow, okay?"

...

The others are outside playing volleyball, but Pearl has asked Garnet to help with the laundry; by now Garnet must know what that means. The task is regular, monotonous, soothing. The clothes are fresh and clean; regular laundry days were the first thing Pearl had loved about Steven. She looks out over the beach. Despite the distance and the glass and the shadows in the house and her intense focus on the game, Peridot notices her looking, waves and grins. Pearl manages a grimace that might pass for a smile given the light and distance. 

"Ah, knowing someone's precise location and if they are looking at you. Classic." Pearl folds the t-shirt with a particularly savage crease. She moves away from the window.  
"She's all" Pearl makes an elegant gesture of frustration, "I'm a technician and my gem is in my face, and my name begins with a `P', and I miss Homeworld, and I've spent so long being told what to do and what to think that I can't handle freedom so now I'm going to have a one-sided unhealthy obsession at whatever authority figure is handy." 

Pearl blots her face with the shirt, inhaling the scent of detergent.

"That would be a terrible thing to say about your new friend." Garnet states blandly. "I think that she's good for you."

"It would be though, wouldn't it? I wouldn't hurt her for worlds; she just gave me the most wonderful new perspective on myself." She gazes out the window. "It really is the most precious thing I've been given in years."

"That's the realisation. How do you live it." Garnet takes the shirt from her unresisting fingers and returns it to the to-wash pile.

"Being an object of adoration is an impossible burden that no one could live up to; I've inflicted it on too many people. I'm sorry for every time I treated it as a betrayal that you aren't infallible."  
"I'm close." Garnet speaks on the heels of Pearl's last word.  
Pearl gives a surprised laugh; Garnet doesn't often use futurevision for comebacks.

"You can't make my purpose for me. Rose." Pearl pauses. She can't hold the whole thought in her head. Not yet.  
"Say it. I'll let you fold the last shirt."  
She hesitates. Thinks. _Decides_ not to say it.  
"I must have hurt her so badly."

**Author's Note:**

> OMAKE
> 
> A week later at breakfast, Pearl makes an announcement.  
> "I think I need a holiday. Amethyst, do you want to go hoboing with me?"  
> "You? In a boxcar? Riding the rattling rails of hobohemia? Warming your hands with fingerless gloves and a trashcan fire? Eating _hobo beans_. That, I gotta see."  
>  "I can play a banjo, I read trampsign, I know five ways to tie a bindle and my stone soup is sublime."  
> Steven's eyes are stars.


End file.
